After Pakistan’s objection, U-19 Asia Cup moved out of India

India will not be hosting the 2017 Under-19 Asia Cup after a decision was taken in a Asian Cricket Council annual general body meeting to withdraw the hosting rights from the country and give them to Malaysia. Decision on Asia Cup for the senior team will be taken in the next meeting as the tournament is also scheduled to be held in India the next year.

The development took place after the Pakistan Cricket Board raised objections to the tournament being held in Bengaluru in November. PCB’s argument states that even though they wanted their boys to participate, they did not want the young players to go through inconvenience.

In an interview to ESPNcricinfo, PCB chairman Najam Sethi said, “The matter of shifting the tournament to Malaysia was amicably agreed by all participants in the development and executive committees, since no one wanted it marred by security considerations of any member.”

Earlier, former Pakistan captain Javed Miandad called on the PCB to boycott playing against India in all ICC events. Before that, India’s Union Sports Minister Vijay Goel had announced that no athlete from Pakistan will be allowed to play in the country.

Despite political crisis in Kuwait, the Western Region qualifying round – consisting of teams from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Bahrain – will be played there. The countries to have earned an automatic qualification to the tournament are Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. A total of eight teams will play in the tournament.